Information for Principals: General Guidelines for Having NYU Tutors at Your School
Below are some general guidelines for principals and America Reads coordinators. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Lee Frissell by phone (212) 998-5021 or by email at areads@nyu.edu.
We will post the names of all tutors assigned to your school on this website, and notify you when we have done so. We require tutors to report to the school within two weeks of receiving the assignment. We will inform you of what that 2 week block is. We instruct tutors not to call or email the school or attempt to make appointments before coming. They will report to the school within that period and ask you or someone you assign to this task to assign them to work with a teacher. If you know which teachers you want to have tutors assigned to them, this should be a very easy and straightforward task. Tutors know that they may need to wait before getting a teacher assignment, and are paid for their wait time, but we find it is much better if tutors can see a teacher on their first trip to the school. Although it might seem that having tutors make appointments would be more efficient, we have found that doing so simply complicates and greatly delays the tutor's starting work at the school. If you insist that tutors must make appointments before coming, we will not be able to place tutors in your school and will need to reassign them to a different school. Please inform us if that is your wish.
We do not assign tutors to specific teachers. Only principals or their designees may do that. We assign tutors to schools and, from there, principals make the classroom assignments.
This is a paid, work-study program, not a volunteer program. Tutors are expected to make a regular schedule and to follow it. If tutors are not reliable or not helpful, they should be reported to us and we will take corrective action. Tutors are instructed to dress in a manner that shows respect for the students, teachers and others in the school. They are instructed not to wear hats in the buidling, not to use iPods, etc. and to turn off cell phones while in the building. If tutors violate these instructions, please feel free to correct them, or to inform us if it continues. If necessary, we will terminate the tutor's participation in this program. Please let us know if and as problems present themselves rather than waiting until the end of the year.
Work Schedules: In consultation with teachers tutors may arrange any work schedule they like, provided they meet the following guidelines:
- Tutors must work at the school on at least 2 weekdays during regular school hours.
- Tutors must work for at least 2 hours or more each time they come to the school.
- Tutors must work 6 - 20 hours/ week during regular school hours.
- Tutors may work in after-school programs, but this work does not serve to fulfill the 6 hour weekly minimum.
Timesheets: Teachers must take car to verify the hours tutors submit on their bi-weekly timesheets, and must keep a carbon copy of all timesheets for the entire year.
Holidays: We do not require tutors to work on NYU holidays, even if the public schools are open. However, tutors may work on those days if they desire. In all cases, they are required to keep their teacher informed of whether or not they will be working at specific times. This is especially true at the long breaks. For example, NYU's Fall Semester ends on Dec. 13 and the school does not re-open until Jan 17. Tutors may choose not to work, or to work expanded hours (up to 35 hours per week), during this time, but they must inform their teachers of their plans and have permission from the school to work expanded hours. Similarly, NYU's Spring Break differs from that of the public schools. Tutors are not required to work but are required to keep the school informed of their plans.
Tutors in the classroom:
- Tutors should be assigned only academic tasks, not clerical or administrative tasks (except on rare occasion.)
- Tutors should always work under the direction and supervision of a teacher.
- Tutors may be assigned to work with more than one teacher.
- Tutors may have lunch with children or spend time on the playground with children, but may not be the person assigned to supervise the children in those settings. Tutors will be paid if they have lunch with teachers to discuss work. Tutors may otherwise take lunch or other breaks, but will not be paid for them.